Monday, July 26, 2004

I discovered an very interesting audio-only interview about Digital Cable Ready televisions. I usually am up to date on this stuff, but this technology took me by surprise. According to the interview, the industry is working on a 2-way version of this, but are rolling out the one-way only version now. Time/Warner already provides these cards to their customers, and Motorola also manufactures them too. What does it do? It is a card that plugs in to the back of your DCR TV and gives you access to all your digital channels via the built in tuner of the TV. This includes all the encrypted channels you pay for. But the one way version means no pay-per-view and no video on demand. Two things I am willing to give up for the convenience of getting rid of a box. And the thought of plugging one of these cards in to a Tivo makes me drool.

Comcast will probably still get me to pay for the box, because they are rolling out the Motorola digital box with the built in DVR in the Boston area soon, perhaps as soon as next month, and I want something that will record HDTV and this looks like the solution. It isn't Tivo, but the recording capacities listed for this box sound great (it has an 80 Gig hard drive). Check out the sweet Flash interactive demo!

This is very cool. You can get Bluetooth luggage tags now. "Bluebird signals your cell phone when your luggage is nearby. There is no need to fight the crowd at the carousel. Have a seat on a nearby bench and read your magazine instead." How sweet is that? I think I want one for my birthday. :-)